Giving Thanks
by phantomgirl7338
Summary: Pepper is suspicious.


Pepper was suspicious.

She was often suspicious after Obadiah went rogue and it became obvious that a closer eye had to be kept on Stark Industries employees, but this time, her watchful eye was on none other than Tony Stark.

He hadn't gone rogue, nor had he done anything bad. In fact, his record was clean ever since he returned from Afghanistan: no drunken stupors and no sex scandals.

But Tony Stark _never_ attended ever meeting he had scheduled. Pepper Potts had been working for Tony for seven years, and from the day she was hired until the present day, she was lucky if she got him to attend one meeting a week.

It was only Wednesday and he attended not one, not two, but five meetings.

Pepper was onto him, though. She knew that Tony only attended meetings more than usual when he had an announcement to make. Two years ago, he attended three meeting in one week, only to announce that he would need to spend two million on a new Arc Reactor repairs.

Needless to say, the directors weren't pleased.

Pepper, however, wasn't completely satisfied with the idea of an announcement. Upon Tony's return, he made two sudden announcements, neither of which calmed her nerves.

Her nerves were like hurricanes after his announcement to stop producing weapons and they turned into tornadoes as he announced to the world that he was Iron Man.

Announcements unsettled Pepper ever since, but Tony told her everything (at least she thought he did), and an announcement seemed too spontaneous for him when he barely left his home to do anything but save the world.

Pepper continued to chew on the thought, along with her pen, as she sat comfortably in her makeshift office: a cushioned barstool, laptop, papers organized to her perfection, and a tall coffee on the bar in Tony's kitchen. She sipped her cooling beverage as she looked up at the ceiling, opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again, finally finding the courage and the right way to ask Tony's AI, "What's going on Mister Stark this week?"

"Well Miss Potts, Mister Stark is currently in a meeting with the directors until two in the afternoon, but the rest of the week is clear for the holiday weekend." It took Pepper a moment to remember that tomorrow was Thanksgiving. She'd been so busy worrying about Tony coming back alive from his missions and juggling his schedule to take in the holiday spirit.

"Thanks, Jarvis, but I was referring to his attendance in meetings this week." She wasn't quite sure why she was facing the ceiling as Jarvis was simply a voice, but she had more important things to be suspicious over.

She typed in the name of her favorite restaurant as Jarvis replied, "Mister Stark has attended all his meetings this week. If I was capable of surprise, I guarantee you Miss Potts, that I would feel it as well. However, I am not sure if there are any ulterior motives in his presence. If there are, I have yet to be notified of them."

Pepper sighed and thanked the AI before returning to her web browser. Every Thanksgiving, rather than stress herself with all the hassles of cooking a huge and fattening meal for one, she made reservations to a restaurant off of the Sunset Strip where they made a killer turkey sandwich. However, as she searched for the website, she realized that not only was the sandwich good, but it was also popular and she always made reservations, even for one to-go, a month in advanced. Reserving one a mere day in advance was impossible and calling the restaurant only reassured her as the host nearly laughed as the idea of someone ordering the sold-out sandwich so late.

Placing her head in her hands, Pepper rubbed her temples, thinking of her ruined day off. She rarely took days off, even holidays, but she found pleasure in saying in bed, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and leisurely picking up her sandwich to enjoy at home with some wine and some jazz. Pepper had absolutely no idea what to do but busied herself with work to avoid the upsetting subject.

At half-past two, Tony arrived home in a suit which, to Pepper's relief, was _not_ iron, or gold titanium alloy, or whatever it was. She welcomed him home with a few papers to sign, which to her surprise yet again, he signed right in front of her, and he promptly went to his room to change. When he returned wearing some old jeans and a tee-shirt, she downed the rest of her almost-scalding coffee and approached him.

"What's going on, Tony?" She was standing right in front of him, hands on her hips, and her eyebrow quirked in a way that made her look oh-so-attractive, if not a little pissed.

"What do you mean, Pepper? And I like this first-name basis thing. Very nice," he replied with a smirk on his face and the playfulness in his eyes that made it difficult to be suspicious of him.

She sighed and turned around to grab his schedule on her Blackberry, using her manicured nail to scroll down to every meeting. "See?"

"See what? The fact that I attended each meeting? They were very annoying and boring, but I went to every one of them! So, ha."

"I'm not laughing."

"Why not, Pepper? I thought you'd be happy that I went to all the meetings-"

"Tony, it is not okay for you to…wait, what?" Pepper interrupted him but was caught off guard."

Tony looked confused. "I went to all the meetings."

"No, the other part."

"I thought you'd be happy?"

It was Pepper's turn to look confused. "But…I…You…I thought you were up to something…" Her face was red and she tried to look away.

Tony laughed. It hurt as much, if not more, than him yelling at her for her suspicions so she attempted to walk away. She wasn't sure where she'd go, but if she could just leave the awkward moment, she'd be safe. Of course, Tony had other plans and grabbed her hand.

"Pepper, don't you get it?" She faced him, still red and biting her lip. "I did this for you, as a gift for you. I'm so…thankful…for all you do for me, and I thought I'd make your life a little bit easier by attending my meetings instead of making you reschedule them for the twentieth time."

Pepper wasn't sure what to do. She briefly considered kissing him, but that would be unnecessary and awkward. She then thought about hugging him, but that would still be unprofessional. Instead, she just said, "Thanks."

"Thanks? That's it? No awesome speech in return? Jeez, Pep. I worked hard on that speech."

Pepper chuckled. "Yeah right."

"Okay, I _might_ have made it up on the spot, but still."

She quickly took in a breath of air, and hugged him before she lost her courage. He hugged her back and smiled into her hair.

"Does that mean I have tomorrow off, still? Or will you decide to want to kill yourself on a mission?" Her words were barely comprehensible as she said them into his chest (which she noted was perfectly toned), but she pushed away and looked into his eyes for the answer.

"I suppose," he smirked, letting out a chuckle.

"Good." She then seated herself back into the barstool and he went behind the bar to grab himself an energy drink. They were silent as he pulled the tab on the can, a rush of air escaping along with the click of the opened aluminum. He took a sip and placed the can back down, it hitting the granite of the bar.

They looked at each other and the resulting silence was awkward. "Pepper?"

"Hmm?" She quickly glanced down at her papers to give her something to do, even though the stack of papers she focused on was already filled out and perfect.

"I was thinking…since Rhodes and I always spend Thanksgiving Day together and he's busy this year…do you want to come over or whatever? We never cook or anything, so you don't have to be Wonder Woman and whip out an invisible meal or anything. It actually seems logical for you to come over because if something-"

"Yes."

"What?

"I said that I'll come over."

"All right, cool."

"What time?"

"What?"

"What time should I come over?"

"I dunno…five."

"All right. Five it is."

* * *

Five couldn't come soon enough on Thanksgiving for either of them. Pepper could hardly enjoy the parade as she was so concerned about what to do. She didn't want to come empty-handed, so she made some dressing and a small chicken for the two of them. She already knew that Tony hated turkey sandwiches and doubted he would enjoy the giant bird. Still, picking out an outfit was hard because she wasn't sure how casual to come, but she ended up in a sweater along with a nice pair of pants to deal with the chilly weather. The drive to his mansion was quick as most families were already settled for the holiday and when she showed up at the door, balancing two large platters, Tony was surprised.

"Pepper, you know that Rhodey and I just order out or microwave something, right?"

"But Tony, it's Thanksgiving! Have some spirit!"

Tony grabbed the platters and brought them to the kitchen. From underneath the bar, he pulled out some wine. "Well, I do have spirits…" Pepper groaned at his terrible joke, but they laughed it off as they set up the table.

While she was placing napkins down, Pepper noticed that Tony cleaned up nicely: he was wearing a nice shirt with some nice pants and even looked as if he trimmed his goatee. She smiled at his efforts and motioned him to sit as she carved the drumstick, his favorite part, off the chicken, and helped herself to some of the breast meat.

They ate in silence, and Pepper smiled again. "What?" Tony stopped chewing and saw Pepper smiling, and it made him curious.

"What's wrong?"

"Why are you smiling?"

"There was a thing in my family where we knew the food was god when all you could hear was silverware." She sipped from her wine and Tony followed suit.

"Well, it's delicious," he commented, "but you forgot something."

Pepper was frightened, thinking that she might have made the chicken too bland. "What did I forget?"

"To say what you're thankful for. That was my family's tradition every year."

"Oh." Pepper let out a sign of relief. "Umm….hmm…I suppose I've been very thankful and blessed this year. For one, you came home safe after three months of being missing off of the face of the Earth! Needless to say, that made me count my blessings. But I suppose I'm also thankful that you still come home safe after the missions, even if I do have to mop up the puddle of blood after you. I'm also thankful for James and Jarvis and to be able to enjoy this holiday with you."

Before Tony could get a word in, Jarvis chimed in, "Why, thank you Miss Potts. The feeling is mutual."

Tony smiled at his AI, but also let Pepper's words sink in. "I'm extremely thankful and blessed to have you, Pepper. Not many PA's would come back the next morning after I had to call them to bail me out of prison or even to patch me up. So, here's to you, Virginia. The best PA, no, person, anyone could ask for." Tony held up his glass in a toasting fashion before taking a drinking. Pepper silently blushed while drinking, her face flushed from the alcohol but also from his kind words. As they cleaned up, both too full or any dessert, Pepper leaned across the table to where Tony was picking up the empty platters and kissed his cheek.

Neither of them said anything as she rinsed the dishes and he loaded them into the dishwasher and Pepper felt a little hurt and mentally kicked herself for kissing him in the first place. When she handed him the last dish however, he placed it in and kissed her on the lips, bringing her into an embrace and she kissed him back. When they broke for oxygen, one word left their swollen lips in unison:

"Thanks."


End file.
